Spirit Crystal
by Pokewriter
Summary: An original travel through Johto.  Follow Jake and Alyssa, a disillusioned trainer and a Cryptopokeologist as they discover adventure and intrigue in the Johto region of the pokemon world


Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon

AN: A few things I wanted to say before I start the story:

1. It is possible, in fact it is quite fun, to write an OC story that doesn't follow the exact story line of a game. We have 5 generations of games and at least four different times in the anime in which we have main characters obtaining their main pokemon, and not a single time is it the same method, so why are so many fan-authors focused on making us read the same damn first chapter that everybody else has seemed to written.

2. Another peeve of mine is: "I can magically speak to pokemon with no rhyme, reason, or general purpose" It is kind of sad if that is the only way people can give their pokemon personality.

So in summery I'm righting this story to interject some originality into the concept of the original character. You may submit an OC if you feel so inclined, just if you do give more than a skeletal description if you expect me to accept them.

**Spirit Chrystal**

**Road to Redemption**

"Lux, Luxray." The pokemon's gleaming eyes scanned the depths of the cave. There were several geodude, graveler sleeping further in and several dozen lost were zubat fluttering around. Luxray's fighting spirit was ignited by the prospect of battle, but it was quickly extinguished by the sight of her trainer at the entrance of the cave.

Moonlight cast Jake's shadow up against the wall of the entrance of the cave. It had been nearly a month since the Sinnoh league championships. The first round was a complete shut out, one of only three in the history of the league. Jake could still hear the jeers of the crowed as he left the stadium. Professor Rowan even offered to take care of Jake's pokemon when he returned to Sandgem. It was difficult to read the professor's reaction when Jake told him that he had decided to move on to Johto, but then again it was always hard to tell what Rowan was thinking. "Deliver this to Professor Elm when you get to New Bark Town." The professor's words echoed in Jake's head. The mysterious pokeball now sat in the bottom of his bag.

"He should have said 'if' I arrive." Jake whined as he lay against the wall of the cave and looked out across the valley. Luxray rolled her eyes as he sat down next to her trainer. His gloomy mood annoyed the electric type to no end. "We might as well get some work done." Reaching into one of his many pockets of his kaki cargo pants searched for the Pokegear. Then opening his black backpack he took out his GPS unit. The darn thing always seemed to find its way down to the very bottom of the pack. Unwrapping a granola bar Jake waited for the two devices to sync. He was hired by Silph co. and the Poketch Company in a joint venture to find a land route between Sinnoh and Johto. It was fairly easy all he had to do was link his GPS to his pokegear once a day. Of course they had to make a competition out of it and he was only one of fifteen teams scouring the mountain range trying to establish a route. The first three teams to reach New Bark were to win a free pokemon from Professor Elm, as well as a new pokegear.

They were making pretty good progress, until three days ago when they started up the mountain. At first it looked like it was going to be an easy short cut, but the other side of the mountain was a sheer cliff face. They spent the whole day looking for a way down, but they eventually realized that they had no choice but to turn back and find another way around. Not looking forward to back tracking Jake stared out into the darkness outside the cave, dozing off without noticing he soon fell asleep.

After what seemed like a moment later to Jake he woke up with a start and looked into a pair of olive colored eyes. "Howdy," was the first word that came to mind. His eyes instinctively darted over to Luxray. She was sprawled out on the floor of the cave and a Zigzagoon was sniffing at the sleeping pokemon's face.

"Are you a pokemon?" The girl asked with a straight face.

"Um, no," The girl looked disappointed as Jake tried to clear the sleep cobwebs out of his mind. "I'm sorry?" He wasn't sure if he was supposed to apologize, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

"If you're not a pokemon than why are you sleeping in a cave?" The girl asked suspiciously, putting her hands on her hips. Now that she had backed up a bit he could see more of the strange girl. Her black ponytail hung down between her shoulder blades. It contrasted sharply with the bright yellow slicker that she wore over her lime green tee-shirt and blue jeans. "What's the matter, never seen a girl wearing blue jeans before?"

"Now that you mention it..." Jake thought it would be better if he didn't finish the sentence. "Anyway, my name is Jake. This is my partner Luxray." Luxray had woken up during the interim and was about to unleash hell upon the curious little Zigzagoon that was pestering her. "We're looking for a way to New Bark Town. Who are you?"

"Alyssa Wong," She said proudly, "Cryptopokeologist, and this is my partner," She pointed at the Zigzagoon, "Ziggy the mystical Zigzagoon."

Jake looked at the little raccoon, its tongue lolled out as he panted, a lazy grin was plastered to his face. "A crypto what?" Jake asked, confused as Ziggy suddenly discovered his tail and took off spinning in a valiant effort to catch it.

"A Cryptopokeologist," Alyssa looked exasperated, "I'm looking for all of the pokemon that the, so called, 'Professors' forgot to put in the pokedex."

"Well, good luck with that." Jake shouldered his pack. He was surprised at how much he actually meant it.

"Where are you going," Alyssa blocked the entrance the cave. "I want to see what kind of pokemon you have." Luxray jumped at the obvious challenge.

"I only have Luxray with me." Jake side stepped around the girl. "I'm sorry I have a lot of backtracking to do, so if you'll excuse me." Luxray jumped in front of Jake and ran an arc of electricity down her mane. Her patience with her trainer was about up.

"I know a short cut to New Bark." Alyssa said slyly.

This got Jakes attention. "Really, Can you tell me please?"

"On two conditions," She put up two fingers, "One, you give me an interesting battle. Condition number two, you take me with you."

Her second condition confused him a little, "Why would you want to travel with me?"

"Those are the conditions, do you agree?" Alyssa crossed her arms confidently.

"Fine, but it will have to be a one on one single battle." Jake laid down the terms of the battle. "Since I only have Luxray with me, I'll use her." The pokemon eagerly took her place in front of her trainer.

The Cryptopokeologist chuckled eerily, "Aright, and now presenting...Ziggy, the mystical Zigzagoon!" The tiny raccoon took a round about path to its place on the battle field.

"Wait," Jake had a flash of apprehension, "what makes him 'mystical'?"

"Oh, you'll see. Ziggy let's start off with double team." Within an instant Luxray was surrounded by about dozen Ziggy clones running in intricate patterns around her. Occasionally Luxray's sharp eyes could keep up with an opponent using that technique but this Zigzagoon was exceptionally trained.

A glance at her trainer was all that was needed to convey her concern. But Jake seemed to be back to normal. His specialty had always been the trainer on trainer battle, when they had gotten to the league he shut down in front of the spectators. "Wait for him to come to you." Jake said with a smile on his face.

"Okay, if you want to be like that." Alyssa took her next turn. "Head butt her Ziggy."

One of the clones broke formation and was attacking at her left quarter, "Doge to the right, now!" Jake commanded his pokemon, but as soon as Luxray moved she collided straight into the real Zigzagoon as he followed his trainers command and the illusion faded back into formation.

"Oh, come on that's a common tactic, can't you do any thing original?" Alyssa pouted as Luxray tried to compose herself.

"Are you sure that you aren't a coordinator?" Jake sneered at his opponent. "Luxray, it looks like we have to blast them all at once. Use discharge."

Luxray closed her eyes and concentrated as electrical energy stored up in her mane. "LUX" Her eyes flew open glowing the same electric blue as her mane, "RAAAAY" A sphere of bright light erupted from her body and instantly grew to cover the entire battle field. The illusionary zigzagoon all disappeared as the sphere engulfed them. Panting she surveyed the damage of her, typically battle ending, attack. But was disappointed, the double team was dispelled, but in front of her was the tell tale hole of a pokemon using dig.

"Damn that thing is fast." Jake swore.

"That discharge was amazing," Alyssa sounded genuinely impressed, "but it took too long, you'll have to be a lot faster than that to beat Ziggy."

"Yeah, we're kind of working on that." Jake sheepishly confessed, "Okay Luxray, you know what to do." Luxray closed her eyes for a moment of concentration.

Luxray's eyes glistened gold as they opened again and the dim cave was as clear as if it was a noon day. Surface details faded as her natural talents kicked in. It didn't take long to discover the location of the zigzagoon underneath her. With a well timed jump she managed to evade the attack from below. Coming down Luxray managed to score a direct hit with a bite attack on the back on the back of Ziggy's head. Chomping down she looked to Jake. With a nod he gave a signal, and the zigzagoon yelled in agony as the thunder fang coursed through his body.

"Wow that was awesome!" Alyssa squealed, "But I think we'll go ahead and win now. Ziggy go ahead and use fling." Ziggy flicked his tail and a poison barb flew at Luxray and before she could doge it lodged deep within her shoulder and pumped its poison into the gleam eyes pokemon. Luxray tried to hold on, but soon after the poison took effect she collapsed into a heap and the battle concluded.

With a frustrated sigh Jake picked up his bag. After a bit of fishing he withdrew a revive crystal. Luxray had regained conscious, so it was a bit of a struggle to get her to take her medicine. "If Luxray is feeling better we really should get going." Alyssa seemed to be antsy about getting started.

Luxray thrashed at her muzzle and licked her chops repeatedly as the medicine dissolved in her mouth. "She'll be fine, but you might want to keep Ziggy away from her for a while" The zigzagoon took a seat in front of Luxray with its stupid grin on his face. "What's the hurry anyway?" Jake shouldered his pack.

"We have a little bit of a security window to shoot through, but I think we'll make it." Alyssa walked deeper into the cave with Jake in tow.

After a while of walking they came to a fast flowing subterranean river. Jake walked up to the bank and whistled in astonishment, "How do you plan on getting past this?"

"What do you mean by 'past it'? Alyssa smiled. Jake turned towards her and caught her elbow in the middle of his ribcage. He was able to hold the pose for a second as he tried to regain his balance over the raging current. But unavoidably the one foot that he was able to balance on twisted wrong and Jake was sent tumbling down the swift current. Without hesitation Luxray jumped in after her master. "Wahoo!" Ziggy's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he and Alyssa jumped in the river.


End file.
